Propaganda at the British Library

There is a new exhibition at the British Library covering propaganda in the modern age. It has already started, but runs until September.

The British Library, London

Jack1956

There are many free exhibitions in the British Library, but you'll have to pay for this one. Tickets - which can be booked on-line - are £9 but kids get in for free, and there are also concessions. What will you learn from it?Propaganda: Power and Persuasion is primarily about government propaganda; it covers war-time and peace, from a Western perspective but also includes Nazi propaganda, and that of "rogue state" North Korea.

There is also a blog, and as the exhibition is being run in partnership with the New Statesman magazine, it is guaranteed to have a left wing bias. There is a short video on YouTube that gives you a sample of what you can expect. It begins with one of the advertisements warning against AIDS that was produced by the Government at the beginning of the scare when it was warned that we were all at risk instead of primarily homosexuals and intravenous drug users. It is easy to be cynical about propaganda, but governments don't lie to us all the time, and whatever we may say, there is a lot of good will out there. The AIDS advertisements may not have been entirely accurate, but they erred on the side of caution. The same can probably not be said for everything on show at this exhibition.